Ray’s Daily
March 3, 2021
“Sometimes carrying on, just carrying on, is the superhuman achievement.”
Albert Camus
At last we will relax the restrictions that have helped us through the worst of the Covid epidemic. I will soon be able to venture out with friends and family for occasional visits and even restaurant meals.
This last year has not been easy for any of us and I know the return to social interaction will be a welcome change. I am not going to agonize over the past, rather I am going to do all I can to make the best of the days ahead.
Here is an abridged article written by Lauren Baptiste that I find helpful, I hope you will as well.
6 Positive Shifts in Behavior That Will Change Your Entire Life
These mental resilience practices have the power to change your life, if you invite them in wholeheartedly. Whether you’re addressing pandemic fatigue or another high-stress time in your life, these practices can shorten and possibly end the cycles of overwhelm and burnout.
1. Be Compassionate: Do Not Criticize – When you stop being overly critical, your work and relationships will improve. You may even notice this feeling of positivity impacting the way your body feels. Managing your stress starts and ends with embracing wellness in all five of your senses.
2. Be Tolerant: Trade Expectations for Appreciation – This one is all about perspective–sometimes we want to be control freaks, am I right? Yearning for control is understandable, particularly during a time of uncertainty. But when we trade expectations for appreciation, we actually feel less out of control.
3. Be Empathetic: Don’t Hesitate to Apologize – Instead of carrying around the burden of taking offense, release that negativity. Like water off a duck’s back, try to quickly forgive the person for your own sense of peace. They will learn by example from your tolerance and you can continue to maintain positive thinking practices.
5. Be Optimistic: Let Others Know You See the Best in Them – When we endure challenging circumstances for a long period of time, our patience wears thin. As a result our interpersonal relationships suffer. We place unfair expectations on others or take out our frustration on our coworkers and loved ones. As a result, those close to us will often match our negative energy and we will feel isolated. It’s a vicious cycle.
You can break that cycle by consciously looking for the best in others. When you see someone push themselves or succeed, express your admiration. When you see the best in others, they will often rise to your belief in them. In turn, you will both treat each other with more respect and compassion.
6. Be Grateful: Swap the Negativity for Gratitude – This one is key. Despite the abundant challenges of this year, I alway refer back to my sense of gratitude for the positive parts of my life. Gratitude keeps me grounded when stress, burnout or pandemic fatigue begin to weigh on me.
As we near this bitter-sweet anniversary, I encourage you to reflect on your growth this year. Even if you’re experiencing the effects of pandemic fatigue, try to reframe those negative feelings with positive affirmations. We may be approaching a dark anniversary, but we are also nearing the light at the end of the tunnel. Let’s try to let go of setting ourselves up for failure with negative expectations and appreciate the start of a new journey in 2021.
~~~
“A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.”
Christopher Reeve
~~~
Laws of Life:
* Murphy’s First Law for Wives: If you ask your husband to pick up five items at the store and then you add one more as an afterthought, he will forget two of the first five.
* Kauffman’s Paradox of the Corporation: The less important you are to the corporation, the more your tardiness or absence is noticed.
* The Salary Axiom: The pay raise is just large enough to increase your taxes and just small enough to have no effect on your take-home pay.
* Miller’s Law of Insurance: Insurance covers everything except what happens.
* First Law of Living: As soon as you start doing what you always wanted to be doing, you’ll want to be doing something else.
* Lampner’s Law of Employment: When leaving work late, you will go unnoticed. When you leave work early, you will meet the boss in the parking lot.
~~~
“I used to be scared of dogs. Then I realized that dogs are just as scared of me as I am of them; they just show it differently. They show it by barking and snapping at me, and I show it by wetting myself.”
Dakota Shepard
~~~
The CIA loses track of one of its operatives, and so calls in one of their top spy hunters.
The CIA boss says, “All I can tell you is that his name is Murphy and that he’s somewhere in Ireland. If you think you’ve located him, tell him the code words, ‘The weather forecast calls for mist in the morning.’ If it’s really him, he’ll answer, ‘Yes, and for mist at noon as well.'”
So the spy hunter goes to Ireland and stops in a bar in one of the small towns. He says to the bartender, “Maybe you can help me. I’m looking for a guy named Murphy.”
The bartender replies, “You’re going to have to be more specific because, around here, there are lots of guys named Murphy. There’s Murphy the Baker, who runs the pastry shop on the next block. There’s Murphy the Banker, who’s president of our local savings bank. There’s Murphy the Blacksmith, who works at the stables. And, as a matter of fact, my name is Murphy, too.”
Hearing this, the spy hunter figures he might as well try the code words on the bartender, so he says, “The weather forecast calls for mist in the morning.”
The bartender replies, “Oh, you’re looking for Murphy the Spy. He lives right down the street on the left.”
~~~
“There’s so much pollution in the air now that if it weren’t for our lungs there’d be no place to put it all.”
Robert Orben
~~~
Top Ten Signs You’re Being Stalked by Martha Stewart
10. You get a threatening note made up of letters cut out of a magazine with pinking shears, and they’re all the same size, the same font, and precisely lined up in razor-sharp rows.
9. You find a lemon slice in the dog’s water bowl.
8. On her TV show she makes a gingerbread house that looks exactly like your split-level, right down to the fallen licorice downspout and the half-open graham cracker garage door.
7. You find your pet bunny on the stove in an exquisite tarragon,rose petal & saffron demi-glace’, with pecan-crusted hearts of palm and a delicate mint-fennel sauce.
6. The unmistakable aroma of potpourri follows you even after you leave the bathroom.
5. You discover that every napkin in the entire house has been folded into a swan.
4. No matter “where” you eat, your place setting always includes an oyster fork.
3. Twice this week you’ve been the victim of a drive-by doilying.
2. You wake up in the hospital with a concussion and endive stuffing in every orifice.
AND THE NUMBER 1 Sign You’re Being Stalked by Martha Stewart…
1. You awaken one morning with a glue gun pointed squarely at your temple.
~~~
I want to sing like the birds sing, not worrying about who hears or what they think.
Rumi
~~~
William’s wife started noticing how forgetful he was becoming. Being the concerned wife, she convinced him to see a doctor. William was a little worried when the doctor came in. Sensing his patient’s nervousness, the first thing the doctor did was to ask what was troubling him.
“Well,” William answered. “I seem to be getting forgetful. I’m never sure I can remember where I put the car, or whether I answered a letter, or where I’m going, or what it is I’m going to do once I get there, if I get there. So, I really need your help. What can I do?”
The doctor thought for a moment, then answered in his kindest tone, “Pay me in advance.”
~~~
Is it possible to be totally partial?
~~~
Chuckie and Mike were fishing at their special pond off the beaten track. All of a sudden, the Game Warden jumped out of the bushes. Immediately, Chuckie threw his rod down and started running through the woods as fast as he could. The Game Warden was hot on his heels. After about a half mile, the young man stopped and stooped over with his hands on his thighs to catch his breath, so the Game Warden finally caught up to him.
“Let’s see yer fishin’ license, Boy!” the Warden gasped.
With that, Chuckie pulled out his wallet and gave the Game Warden a valid fishing license.
“Well, son,” said the Game Warden,” You must be about as dumb as a box of rocks! You don’t have to run from me if you have a valid license!”
“Yes, sir,” replied the young guy. “But my buddy back there, well, he don’t have one.”
~~~
Time is what keeps everything from happening at once.
~~~
A lawyer had successfully handled a difficult law case for a wealthy friend. Following the happy outcome of the case, the friend and client called on the lawyer, expressed his appreciation of his work and handed him a handsome Moroccan leather wallet.
The lawyer looked at the wallet in astonishment and handed it back with a sharp reminder that a wallet could not possible compensate him for his services. “My fee for that work,” acidly snapped the attorney, “is five hundred dollars.”
The client opened the wallet, removed a one-thousand dollar bill, replaced it with a five-hundred dollar bill and handed it back to the lawyer with a smile.
~~~
“Rock bottom became the solid foundation in which I rebuilt my life.”
J.K. Rowling
~~~
Indianapolis, Indiana
Management is not responsible for duplicates from previous dailies. The editor is somewhat senile.
Ray’s Daily has been sent for more than twenty years to people who want to start their day on an upbeat. If you have system overload because of our daily clutter, let me know and I will send you the information via mental telepathy. If you have not been getting our daily you can request to be added by e-mailing me at raykiwsp@comcast.net. Back issues are posted at http://rays-daily,com/ currently there are hundreds of readers from around the world.
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